NUT conference:

Delegates vote to keep up pressure over pensions

DELEGATES TO the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference were determined to press home the retreat that had been inflicted on the government over public-sector pensions.

Ken Smith

Delegates agreed to prepare for strike action on pensions. A campaign of industrial action on workload and teachers' hours, salaries and conditions, including strike action, was agreed to extract major concessions from the government.

Most teachers attending the conference were buoyed up by the retreat that the threat of co-ordinated industrial action had forced on the government. But they also knew that the government was buying time and would be back with further attacks.

The priority motion from the NUT executive on pensions argued that the government's climbdown came about through co-operation in negotiations by the public-sector unions.

But, as Lewisham delegate and Socialist Party member Martin Powell-Davies made clear when moving the main amendment to the executive motion, it was the threat of co-ordinated strike action which persuaded the government to climb down.

The amendment stated that "the union will ballot for industrial action unless there is a withdrawal of all proposals to worsen teachers' pensions."

Martin pointed out that pensions secretary Alan Johnson had initially said the increase in the public-sector retirement age had been "non-negotiable". Clearly the government had taken a big step back. "But we have to wait and see how far this step will be".

Martin said it was the outcry from below and the way union members at local level united to put pressure on the NUT leadership to link all areas in national action that had added to the pressure on the government, rather than skilful negotiations. The amendment called for decisions about future action to involve the divisional secretaries of the NUT, as well as the national executive and the officers of the union.

Martin concluded that whilst "the unions had won round one, they had to get ready to win the whole fight". The NUT's contribution to that, he argued, would be to prepare for a ballot for discontinuous action and ensure that the union took action on the same day as other public-sector unions.

Such was the strength of feeling at the conference that although the NUT leadership privately say they are ready to trust the government in negotiations, they accepted the amendment which was passed unanimously.

"We give and they take"

DELEGATES at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference reflected their members' desire for large-scale action.

They had seen the effect that the threat of co-ordinated action had in moving the government over pensions, while years of a promised social partnership had produced nothing.

TUC leader Brendan Barber was jeered by conference delegates when he called for more social partnership. And Motion 15, which was passed overwhelmingly, rejected the Social Partnership approach - as one delegate put it - "we give and they take".

Teachers are fed up of the "abusive relationship" that social partnership is and want their union to get back to the business of representing its members, using the only language the Blair government seems to understand.

As one delegate said: "Two million marched against the war and Blair ignored it. But the threat of one and a half million workers striking in the run-up to an election was a different matter."

Whether the NUT leadership respond in the same determined way as their members remains to be seen.

Speaking after the conference passed the motions on social partnership and workload, NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott said that "ballots would not come immediately" and that he wanted to resolve the issue without resorting to strikes.

Teachers, like other workers, don't rush into taking strike action. But the number of issues where teachers are demanding action shows that they are have reached the end of their tether with the New Labour government and a union leadership who let that government get away with it.

Academies

Schools or pie shops?

DELEGATES UNANIMOUSLY backed a motion calling for the union to initiate a national campaign against the government's plans to establish hundreds of city academies.

Speaker after speaker pointed out how the introduction of academies was both financially and ideologically driven.

Delegates were critical of the slowness of the national union in campaigning against academies compared to the initiative being shown by local NUT reps.

Ken Muller from Islington revealed that the NUT in his area had used the Freedom of Information Act to find that former chief inspector of Osted, Chris Woodhead, had manipulated reports on Islington Green school to ensure it was failed.

Shortly after another school in Islington was failed and the local education authority was privatised in preparation for academies being introduced into the borough.

Pete Flack from Leicester NUT said that the academy in Leicester was a joint venture between the Church of England and a local pork pie manufacturer.

Pete said this would satisfy people's spiritual needs and lunch all in one go.

The academy was to also function as the local church but would only be able to do weddings on weekends and school holidays!

Teachers want action over workload

USING INDUSTRIAL action to rectify the many justified grievances of teachers was a recurrent theme of the conference.

Socialist Party member Rachael Thomas, a delegate from Bristol, argued that teachers will also have to take strike action to ensure that the 10% non-teaching time (planning and preparation - PPA - time) they are due to receive from September will be implemented in schools.

Rachael pointed out how primary teachers were having to work more hours than ever before - 52.5 per week - and had the added pressures of doing preparation out of school hours. This, she said, was forcing some teachers to work part-time not because they wanted to but in order "to get their weekends back". This, Rachael said, meant "effectively taking a big pay cut, reducing pension contributions and working for nothing for one or two days in order to preserve relationships at home and/or physical and mental health."

But gains for teachers cannot be paid for by longer hours or "more exploitation" of teaching assistants. Rachael pointed out that this group of workers were "exploited by short-term contracts and poverty pay. They should not be put under pressure to oblige the government and be forced to teach whole classes."

The motion calling for action was passed overwhelmingly despite Martin Reed arguing on behalf of the right-wing majority on the NEC that it was "disingenuous to cite a desire for large-scale action."

In Brief

THE CONFERENCE backed a motion to change the union's antiquated rules and make strike action easier. The rule change will mean that a 50% plus one majority will be enough to allow strike action.

The successful motion removed the system of thresholds on votes and turnouts for certain types of strike action. For example a 66% vote for strike action against SATs testing in schools was insufficient!

CONFERENCE VOTED for a year-long consultation over whether the union should have a political fund.

AT THE Socialist Party's meeting, nearly 40 people heard Coventry Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist argue the case for establishing a new trade-union based political party representing working-class people.

£200 was raised for the Socialist Party fighting fund. Over 100 copies of a special conference bulletin were sold.

NUT: Delegates' pensions pressure

Coventry: Save Peugeot jobs

Pensions: Postal workers' solidarity

Fighting Housing Corporation cuts

College lecturers fight for pay deal

UNISON National Executive Council elections

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